Not so long ago, K-movies and TV dramas were considered cool, even thought-provoking. That was before their breakthrough into the global mainstream, when ideas were typed into laptops in corner coffeehouses in Seoul by young directors and writers, rather than processed as if they were spreadsheet entries by CFOs or CFAs in cushy offices in Hollywood.

It was also when these South Korean artists abhorred clichés. Big money, both at home and from Hollywood, has probably quenched their thirst for fame and wealth, but the price was the loss of edginess. K-films have become trimmed and reprocessed through the Hollywood machine.

It is no wonder that season 2 of Squid Game, while more expensive to make and more aggressively marketed, cannot even be compared with its first season for intensity and intrigue. It is no coincidence either that Bong Joon-ho’s first big Hollywood studio film, Mickey 17, was a cliché-loaded flop. It all felt like kimchi marinated with corn syrup instead of coarse salt.